Love of My Life
by Admetus
Summary: Short story about Ferro & Spunkmeyer. (dedicated to our Ferro) xx


It was still dark when Ferro woke up. She stayed lying where she was listening to the others breathing around her and wondered idly what they'd be doing tomorrow. It was bound to be something dull, after all they were supposed to be training and getting fitter and that involved long runs in the baking heat, working out, practising their aim or other boring exercises. Also they were forced to spend hours cleaning and maintaining their equipment and checking and rechecking their supplies. None of this was something any of them particularly enjoyed doing and by now most of them were fed up with waiting for something interesting to happen. Personally Ferro liked having time to improve her skills but she was definitely a minority.

With a sigh Ferro rolled over and tried to get comfortable. It was far too hot and the water pipes above her squeaked and screeched every few seconds making it impossible to sleep once you had noticed them. She wished she could have slept at the other end of the room where you couldn't hear the annoying noise but it was just her luck to be given the worst bed in the room. Glaring into the darkness where she knew the pipes were Ferro cursed and covered her head with the thin, uncomfortable pillow. It did nothing to block out the sound but the mattress turned out to actually be more comfortable than the pillow. She closed her eyes and tried her best to get to sleep but now with something over her head it was stuffy and hard to breathe. Angrily the marine sat up and pummelled the pillow in a vain attempt to make it a nicer shape.

"Can't sleep?", a voice asked from her left and Ferro could almost hear the smirk on the speaker's face, "It's just normal people don't beat up their bedding."

With an angry growl Ferro hurled the pillow as hard as she could at where she knew her friend was and grinned with satisfaction as she heard a surprised curse. Even in the dark her aim was perfect. "Shut up, Spunkmeyer!", she hissed and turned her back on him firmly closing her eyes and trying to look relaxed. With the pillow gone her neck began to ache after about five minutes. Ferro sat up and peered across at the bed next to hers. "Give my pillow back," she whispered crossly really hoping that Spunkmeyer was actually still awake.

He was but he didn't seem inclined to give anything back any time soon. Lounging with his head on both pillows he grinned broadly at the irritated tone to his friend's voice. "I thought you didn't want it."

"Well I do now, so give it back!" Ferro tried her best not to rise to it and sound annoyed because he'd just find that funny but it was very hard when she was hot and tired and wanted to go to sleep.

"Ask nicely." He was definitely enjoying this.

Ferro rolled her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Don't be so childish, just give it back!"

"But you didn't say please." Spunkmeyer sounded mock outraged.

"Fine! I didn't want it anyway." There was a long silence where Ferro thought he might have fallen asleep. Maybe if he did she could creep over and get the pillow back and then she might finally be able to get some rest. At that moment the pipes above her gave a particularly loud screech. Or maybe not. She jumped as somebody put a hand on her shoulder and whirled round her fist flying out to hit them.

Expecting this Spunkmeyer caught his friend's arm. "It's just me." He was sat on the edge of her bed with her pillow held in his other hand. "I brought you this back." He held it out to her and grinned when she took it with a sulky glare and slammed in viciously down onto the bed. "It's not the pillow's fault you can't sleep." When she didn't say anything he looked embarrassed and shifted uncomfortably around on the edge of the bed. "Ferro, can I talk to you?"

"What do you want to talk about?" She still didn't sound happy but some of the annoyance had gone from her voice at his more serious tone. In fact she was actually intrigued to know what he could possibly want to talk about in the middle of the night but she didn't want to sound too interested or like she had forgiven him for his silly joke.

Spunkmeyer hesitated unsure of how she'd react to what he wanted to say. He'd been trying to find a way to talk to her for ages but every time he opened his mouth somebody would come in or he would just say something about the weather. Now was the perfect time to have this conversation. It was dark so she couldn't see how nervous he looked and everybody else was fast asleep. "Ferro..." He stopped again and wished he didn't feel like such an idiot. "Ferro, I..." This would never work, he sounded too stupid. She was probably already laughing at him. "Never mind." Shaking his head he went to stand up and leave but Ferro's hand grabbed his wrist and she pulled him back.

"What were you going to say?", she demanded staring intently into the darkness trying to make out the expression on his face. It was too much to hope for that he had actually been about to say what she had wanted him to say for years. Her heart was beating so fast she thought he must be able to hear it and she was holding her breath nervously.

There was a long pause where neither of them could say anything. Then Spunkmeyer whispered so quietly that Ferro almost didn't hear him, "I love you." It took her a minute to understand what he had said and when she did she had never felt anything so amazing before in her whole life. It was like all the birthdays and Christmases in the world rolled into one.

"I love you, too." Ferro lent forwards and kissed him wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him towards her.

The next morning Ferro woke up to find herself curled up with her head resting on Spunkmeyer's shoulder. Everybody else was still asleep. She lay quietly for a second listening to the sound of his heartbeat. _This is perfect_, she thought and she meant it. She had never been so happy before and nothing would ever compare to this feeling.


End file.
